We’re back with our monthly recap on the Hawaii Commercial Investment Real Estate market. Check out our thoughts and let us know if you have any questions or need more information on any of these sales/properties. This video is from March, to receive these posts at launch, please reach out directly and we’ll add you to our list.

Last month, I was quoted in a Pacific Business News article about the former Federal Aviation Administration building on Kalakaua Avenue, which was recently sold to an undisclosed buyer. Myself, Brandon Bera, and Karen Birkett represented the sellers, New York’s Angelo, Gordon & Co. and Hawaii’s Pacific Office Properties Trust Inc, in this recent transaction. The building, which once held the Pacific Business News offices, is a likely candidate for redevelopment because it is located in the Waikiki Special Design District that allows new developments. I believe this property could be redeveloped into a hotel or a number of other retail or commercial opportunities. Even in the event of a redevelopment, the buyers will be honoring all of the leases in place. The largest tenant is an international school called EF International. They have branches in New York, Oxford, and Torbay England. They occupy an entire floor of the building and moved into their space a couple of years ago. They were previously located in the Waikiki Trade Center, which has been transformed into the Hyatt Centric Waikiki. This was …

A few months ago, I wrote about the new timeshare developments all over the islands. As we see more progress on these resorts, we are noticing a concentration of timeshares on the Kona/Kohala coast of Hawaii. Besides the Hilton Grand Islander in Waikiki, Hilton is busy converting the Hilton Waikoloa Village from 601 hotel units into 450 timeshares. The Waikoloa Beach Marriott Resort & Spa is converting 240 existing rooms into 112 timeshare units just down the road from the Hilton. The Haupana Beach Prince Hotel just finalized the sale of 96 of their 35o rooms to an affiliate of Angelo Gordon & Co to be converted into new five-star residences. All of these timeshares on the northern coast of the Big Island are a great indicator of the market and things to come for this area of Hawaii. By our calculations, this is almost 700 new timeshare units throughout these three resorts and they are being offered 52 weeks a year. This kind of availability is unprecedented and we are excited to see what new opportunities …

January started off strong with 19 deals totaling over $84,000,000. With the election and Holidays behind us, 2017 is anticipated to extend 3-years of market-high volumes with modest decline in total dollars exchanged.

For the first time in four years, the commercial real estate investment sales volume in Hawaii declined. After establishing a record high last year of more than $4.57 billion, the transaction volume dipped slightly for a year-end 2015 total of $4.47 billion.

Pacific Business News published a stirring article about how one of our apartment properties, YMCA Central Branch located on Atkinson Drive, is developing. While there was a halt in development, they have finally worked out their zoning issues and the developer of the project confirmed that construction will begin early 2016. The first and foremost important part of the project is the new YMCA, which will be a redeveloped 3-story, 30,000 square-foot facility. They are working diligently to finish the plans for the new Central Branch of YMCA Honolulu before they begin focusing on the condo project. In the article, Duane Shimogawa writes, “California-based MB Property Acquisitions LLC has partnered with the Japanese firm Tama Home on the development. Michael Blumenthal, president of MB Property Acquisitions, told PBN … , ‘It has taken a while, but we are moving forward,’ Blumenthal said, noting that the demolition of the YMCA Central branch should begin in about five months. ‘It took a little more than a year to get the zone change, but that enhanced the economics of …